Williams fastest in opening day of Silverstone test

Felipe Massa was the quickest driver on the opening day of the third in-season test at Silverstone on Tuesday albeit seven-tenths slower than the fastest time set during the British Grand Prix weekend.

Massa, whose programme involved evaluating parts meant for next year's Williams, was only 0.006 seconds quicker than Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo with Mercedes' Nico Rosberg a further three-tenths off the pace in third.

Incidentally, the top three times came from the same teams that featured on the podium at the British GP on Sunday, although not in the same order.

"The car was very competitive during the race so today we have built on a very good platform," Massa said.

The two days at Silverstone are the final opportunities available to test outside of a Grand Prix weekend before the end of the season.

Stoffel Vandoorne carried out duties for McLaren and Will Stevens stepped in at Caterham, giving a break to the team's regular drivers.

ALONSO ON THE SIMULATOR

Pedro de la Rosa was behind the wheel at Ferrari, with the team comparing his work on the simulator at Maranello and his inputs from his time on the track. For further correlation checks, Fernando Alonso worked in tandem on the simulator back at the base.

De la Rosa ran a heavy fuel load, which explained why he was 2.7 seconds off the pace, but his day came to a premature end because of a loss of coolant and solving the problem put an end to track activity for the day.

Ferrari, along with Marussia, also carried out a tyre programme for Pirelli as was scheduled.

Jules Bianchi covered the most distance with 108 laps in his Marussia while Jean-Eric Vergne did the least, completing only 28 laps after technical issues with new energy store batteries hindered the Toro Rosso.